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Upside-down American Flag
In Lakota Woman, Christian churches symbolize white society’s imposition on indigenous people’s culture. Forcing Native Americans to convert to Christianity was one way in which white settlers imposed their culture on indigenous people. In Mary’s memoir, she describes the local mission school that she was forced to attend as “a curse for [her] family for generations,” as her grandmother, mother, and sisters also all attended the school. Not only did they endure cruel treatment at the churches, but the forced assimilation and prolonged separation of children from their families prevented them from learning their people’s cultural practices. As many traditional customs were lost, Native Americans—like Mary’s mother and grandmother—were forced to adopt Christianity and other aspects of white society. Because of this, Christian churches came to represent the cultural erasure that Native American people have experienced for centuries. Mary captures this sentiment when describing the Catholic church at Wounded Knee, which she calls a “monument of an alien faith imposed upon the landscape” and, in turn, the people who inhabit that landscape.
Christian Churches Quotes in Lakota Woman
The Lakota Woman quotes below all refer to the symbol of Christian Churches. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
The Crow Dogs, the members of my husband’s family, have no such problems of identity. They don’t need the sun to tan them, they are full-bloods—the Sioux of the Sioux […] They have no shortage of legends. Every Crow Dog seems to be a legend in himself, including the women. They became outcasts in their stronghold at Grass Mountain rather than being whitemanized. They could not be tamed, made to wear a necktie or go to a Christian church. All during the long years when practicing Indian beliefs was forbidden and could be punished with jail, they went right on having their ceremonies, their sweat baths and sacred dances.
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Chapter 2
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[Grandma Moore] thought she was helping me by not teaching me Indian ways. Her being a staunch Catholic also had something to do with it. The missionaries had always been repeating over and over again: “You must kill the Indian in order to save the man!” That was part of trying to escape the hard life. The missions, going to church, dressing and behaving like a wasičun—that for her was the key which would magically unlock the door leading to the good life, the white life with a white-painted cottage […] a shiny car in the garage, and an industrious, necktie-wearing husband who was not a wino. Examples abounded all around her that it was the wrong key to the wrong door, that it would not change the shape of my cheekbones, or the slant of my eyes, the color of my hair, or the feelings inside me.
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Christian Churches Symbol Timeline in Lakota Woman
The timeline below shows where the symbol Christian Churches appears in Lakota Woman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: A Woman from He-Dog
...Dogs isolated themselves as much as they could from white society, refusing to go to church or give up their religious ceremonies. Mary commends their courage.
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Chapter 3: Civilize Them with a Stick
...some point. Grandma tried running away after the nuns cruelly punished her for playing in church by imprisoning her in a dark cubby for a week. But her runaway attempt was...
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Chapter 6: We AIM Not to Please
When the protesters arrived in Washington, D.C., they discovered that the various church groups who had promised the protesters food and accommodation had now rescinded their offers, thanks...
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...an outpouring of support for this idea. The great wave of protesters hurried from the church and poured into the BIA building. Once there, each tribal group selected a room or...
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Chapter 9: The Siege
...Morning Star. He was killed by a bullet that flew through the wall of the church, where he was resting. The activists immediately radioed to the government officials that one of...
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